Book love...

Out and about I stumbled upon a collection of children's classics and it got me thinking, "Why haven't I read more of these books?". Much to my delight most of them are free on our Kindle Fire. Here's the first, a surprising page turner:

Black Beauty.

Book love....

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure.

Scarves....

An artistic take on the three new scarves I got for Christmas. Do my families know me or what?

Sea Shepard Revisited.....

While enjoying the beautiful summer weather and strolling the waterfront we noticed that the Bob Barker (of the Sea Shepard fleet) is still docked in Wellington harbor. We then happened upon another one of their vessels: the Brigitte Bardot. She is one mean-looking trimaran (three hulls).

 

A tribute to their sense of humor. If you look closely you can see the railing is wrapped in silver garland and the red banner reads "Reindeer Crossing". :)

 

Brigitte and Bridget. 

Book love.....

The Year We Left Home.  

The final countdown.....

I am just three days away from officially completing the first, of four, huge projects for my dissertation!! Since we returned to New Zealand (middle of September), after visiting family in the US, I've been working on this project seven days a week. Needless to say, I'm more than ready to see it completed and that will happen the day after Christmas (Boxing Day). For the past week I've been trying to adjust my attitude regarding the fact that I'll have to visit the lab for a few hours on Christmas Day. I mean we were planning to be here in Wellington anyway but I really didn't want to spend part of the holiday in the lab. Just today I learned that tomorrow (Christmas Eve) will be the last day I will collect data for my experiment. As luck would have it, but really it rarely works out so beautifully, I WON'T have to work on Christmas Day and instead can spend the day at home with Timmy enjoying Christmas breakfast, opening presents and not thinking about work. :) With that said to finish the last, time-dependent portion of my experiment I'll have to visit the lab for just an hour on Boxing Day. With Christmas Day off I cannot complain and as I write this post I have a big, cheesy smile on my face. :) I couldn't be happier.

Tim's Visit to Christchurch

Back in November I went to Christchurch for the annual MacDiarmid Institute meeting.

The MacDiarmid Institute is a network of New Zealand researchers who focus on material sciences and nanotechnology.  A cool side note, the organization is named after Alan MacDiarmid, a kiwi who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000.  If you ever visit Wellington, I'll show you his Nobel Prize Medal, because it's on display in the lobby of our building.

For the student at this meeting, our focus was "Future Proofing Your Skills" and we had talks on topics such as job hunting, starting your own research group, finding funding and commercializing your research.  The meeting was held at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.  Many of you probably remember I've visited Christchurch in the past on my way to Antarctica.  In September 2010, Christchurch suffered a severe earthquake that devastated the CBD.

Perhaps you remember seeing my previous pictures, from my Antarctic days, of the Christchurch Cathedral.  It's a very different view today.  The picture above was taken next to the hotel that I stayed in on my 2009 trip to the ice.

While there's a lot of work to be done over the next decade or two to repair Christchurch, there are beacons of hope.  In the dead space from demolished buildings new public spaces are opening up, like this soccer field.

To help businesses recover, a new open air mall, named Re:START has opened.  The building below (and the entire mall) is completely made from converted shipping containers!

While it was a somber visit around the rubble, it was encouraging to see that recovery was under way.  Next time Bridget and I are in Christchurch, we'll let you know what progress they've made with their rebuild.

Merry Christmas.....

With our first southern hemisphere Christmas approaching we see these banners all over the city. Yup. Windy. Welly. :)

Kiwi Parliament....

Last weekend, while out and about enjoying the beautiful summer weather, we strolled by Parliament. It's better known as the "beehive" because of it's shape. :) Here are some pics of the statues in the area.

Sea Shepard.....

Last week we were strolling on the waterfront and happened on something most surprising: the Bob Barker vessel of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society! You may recognize the names from the Animal Planet show Whale Wars. The Sea Shepard Conservation Society was originally organized to shut down whaling and sealing operations but today it's mission focuses on protecting all marine wildlife. The Bob Barker is currently docked in Wellington where the crew is regrouping, gathering supplies and giving tours of the boat. From what I've read their next campaign will focus on preventing poachers from killing whales in the Southern Ocean. Check out their modern day pirate ship. :)

 

Google Earth Tour

Below we have a post entitled "Tim's Trip to Sydney."  It includes an embedded Google Earth tour illustrating Tim's journey from Wellington to the University of Western Sydney campus in Campbell, New South Wales, Australia.  To view the tour, most of you will have to download the Google Earth Gadget.  If you wish to give this a shot, just click the link in gadget window and follow the instructions (Windows will take care of most of the heavy lifting, you'll just need to click along the way).  We understand if not everyone is interested in installing another program on their computer, but for those of you who do, we'd love feedback...  Did the tour work, was it informative, other thoughts?  If enough folks are interested, we'll start to include more Google Earth tours in our posts.

Tim's Trip to Sydney

Book love.....

Notorious Nineteen.

 

Book Love......

Room.                                       

Puzzle....

My mom, Linda, sent us a puzzle to be opened on December 1st. Growing up I remember staying up late and working on puzzles every Christmas and New Year's. So it was fitting that we work on one as our first "Kiwi" Christmas approaches. The only trouble was that we don't have a surface large enough to accommodate any puzzle of decent size. With no table and a tiny desk that's already holding our Christmas tree I was left scratching my head. I thought, "I really want to do this puzzle...but how??". Working in the lab it dawned on me when I saw some large cardboard box tops. Knowing that people would look at me like I was an idiot I fought the wind, thanks Welly, and wrestled the box top home. I lucked out when the puzzle fit perfectly. Here are the facts: I opened the puzzle at midnight on November 30th (early Dec 1) and we finished it last night (Dec 2, Kiwi time). :)

Book love....

Guns, Germs and Steel.

No "King" Here

Yesterday's symposium was intense, but extremely interesting!

Early this morning I made my way to the Sydney Airport and now I am waiting at the gate for my flight.  While there was no sightseeing on this trip and I do not have any photos to share, I do have one interesting tidbit.  If you're a fan of Burger King restaurants, in Australia you'd have to seek out a Hungry Jack's.  Apparently when Burger King expanded to Australia, the name had already been trademarked so an alternative was selected.  Read all about it here or check out their website.

Off to Australia

Hi Folks...

Bridget has done such a great job of keeping you up to date on our life in New Zealand, but I can't ask her to write about my solo travels.  This Friday I am headed to a symposium on magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion in Australia; check it out here!

The conference is at the Campbelltown campus of the University of Western Sydney.  My flight was about three hours and it took about one hour on the train to travel from the Sydney airport to Campbelltown.  I plan to post a Google Earth tour on the blog showing my route, so stay tuned.

For now let me tell you about the flight as we had a number of famous folks on board (of course I mean in addition to the members of our world famous NMR lab).  As Bridget posted earlier this week, Wellington was host to the world premiere of the latest Hobbit movie.  Leaving the celebrations on our flight was Mr. Hugo Weaving, Ms. Cate Blanchett and Mr. Elijah Wood.

With the star sightings over for the week, it's now time for science.  I'll let everyone know how the conference goes.

In the middle of Middle Earth....

That's right. Wellington is the middle of Middle Earth and last night The Hobbit premiered with star sightings, red carpet fanfare and mobs of people trying to get a look at the VIPs. We were only able to crane our necks enough to see Hugo Weaving (he also starred in The Matrix as Agent Smith) but the link below provides some pics from the event. We're not fans of The Lord of the Rings or Hobbit trilogies but it was still fun to experience the buzz of a premiere here in Wellington. :)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/photos/8009499/The-Hobbit-premiere-Red-Carpet

Christmas is saved.....

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. I enjoy Christmas music, decorating the tree and wrapping gifts. The tasks that most people despise I find comforting. So now we're headed for our first Kiwi Christmas and I have to admit that I've been feeling awfully blue regarding the subject. In my mind I know that Christmas is just a few short weeks away but what I've realized is that it doesn't feel like Christmas. The weather is increasingly sunny and beautiful. There is no snow or cold or frost on the windows. I see the Christmas decorations in the stores but they seem out of place because it's summer. Sigh.

To my delight I was buoyed out of my melancholy state this weekend when we received two packages filled with gifts and Christmas treats from our families. I looked up from one of the boxes with a huge smile on my face and said, "Honey, Christmas is saved!!!". It was just what I needed so I will say 'thank you' to our families for thinking of us and sending gifts 6500 miles!!

With this momentum we Christmasified our apartment today. We found a little tree that fits perfectly on one side of our desk. And I got to do something that I've waited 10 months to do. Out of the ottoman I unpacked the Christmas ornaments we brought with us from the US. I couldn't help but smile.

 Joyeux Noel wire sculpture handcrafted by my aunt Ange.

 Rodney the reindeer perched on the back of couch. 

 All Blacks advent calendar.

 Little Christmas tree.

Cute stockings from Mom (Linda).

Now I feel like we're ready to celebrate the holiday. And it will be an interesting one as there are parades, barbeques and other Kiwi traditions to experience!! :)

Book love....

The Lovely Bones. I almost read this in one sitting. It's been years since I've done that and it felt gloriously decadent. :)

Sunny Welly......

Relaxing and watching the waves on the waterfront. It's totally bizarre, with Christmas just around the corner, but summer has arrived in Wellington. :)

Guy Fawkes Day...

Remember, remember the fifth of November

Gun powder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gun powder, treason

Should ever be forgot.

On November 5th, 1605, Guy Fawkes was apprehended in the cellars of English Houses of Parliament where he was guarding barrels filled with gun powder. He was one of many conspirators engaged in a coup to take down the Protestant government and replace it with a Catholic one. Subsequently, he was tried and then executed.

Today, New Zealand is one of many countries that celebrates the fact that the coup was undermined before Parliament was destroyed. And that means big fireworks - not quite on the scale of the 4th of July in the US but a celebration nonetheless. We ventured out on a rainy night to take in the fireworks as they were fired off a boat in the Wellington harbor. :)

Book love....

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I really enjoyed this series and would recommend it to you if you haven't already read it. :)

Stranded in Seatoun....

Saturday was a rare instance when I didn't have to run experiments in the lab and Tim wasn't buried in marking (grading papers). So we decided to take the Dominion Post Ferry out to Somes Island (just outside Welly) to see the little blue penguins. This time of year they are expected to be on the island to nest. Upon arriving at the port we bought our tickets and decided to stop over in Seatoun (see-toon) to check out one of Welly's suburbs and grab brunch since we'd rushed out of the house without eating. Soon after the ferry whisked us away from the harbor. After twenty minutes we arrived in Seatoun, disembarked amongst the rolling waves and went in search of brunch. What we found was a suburb with genuinely cute houses but little else. Luckily there was a cafe where we shared delicious corn fritters with real bacon, avocado, sour cream and mango salsa. After we had our fill we went walking around to kill the remainder of the two hours we had to wait for the ferry to pick us up again to take us to Somes Island. The two hours came and went with no sign of the boat. Hmm. With a phone that was about to die we called back to the office and were told that the ferry had been cancelled because the waves were too big and that maybe they could come to get us in about two hours. We politely declined the offer and decided to take the bus back into Wellington. It was then we realized that our Snappers (bus passes) didn't have enough credit to get us from Seatoun to Wellington. Hopeful, we went to the one dairy in Seatoun and inquired if they 'topped up' Snapper, but alas, they did not. Thankfully, the guy told us there was a place to 'top up' about a kilometer away. With no other option we walked, arms around each other, to the other store. Indeed, we could 'top up' our Snappers and there was a bus stop right next to it with a bus arriving in two minutes. Contented, we rode the bus back into the city. So it wasn't the day we had planned but we still had a great time. We're hoping for good weather next weekend so we can travel to Somes Island and see the little blue penguins (that is their official name). :)

Writing....

This past week I attended a two-day seminar, "Writing for Science", to learn about writing science for non-scientists. Initially I thought that, dare I say it, I might want to do this type of work when I graduate. With that in mind, I figured I should start with a class and see what it would entail (and if I was still interested after two days...). I felt awkward with the group because I was the only student and let's face it, I feel awkward whenever I offer up my work/art/writing for others to critique. In short the class showed me two things: 1) I'm still interested in writing science for non-scientists but 2) this endeavor, if I choose that path, would be incredibly challenging. I learned this as I spent time scratching my head and pulling together first drafts and first sentences related to my current dissertation topic. Before discussing one such activity with the rest of the class I read over my first draft (in it's fourth iteration) explaining the main points of what might be an article in a science magazine. I was sure that I'd been able to describe the details without using jargon but much to my dismay my audience responded saying that it was still too technical. Sigh. I felt incredibly disheartened while at the same time glad to have gained invaluable, new perspective. The class gave me a great deal to think about regarding my dissertation, this blog and writing I may do in the future. All I know is that writing is serious work!! And as an avid reader I have even more respect for those who write well (Mary Roach, Bill Bryson, and Candy Simar to name a few).

Beyond belief....

Yesterday we were at the grocery store perusing the produce when something caught my eye. I had to do a double take to make sure I was reading the sign correctly. Yup, sure enough. I wasn't crazy when I saw the price of red and green chili peppers. Wait for it: $99.99 per kg (2.2 pounds)!!! I kid you not. Now we've become accustomed to, but not happy about, the hefty prices here in Kiwiland but this is ridiculous!!

Kiwi population....

Looking at the paper this morning I saw that we're heading towards a population milestone: 4,444,444. I guess it's supposed to happen by tomorrow. Crazy, huh?? :)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7887106/New-Zealands-population-to-hit-milestone-of-sorts

Book love.....

The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Book love....

I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and am currently working on Guns, Germs and Steel. What are you reading??

Orcas....

Today a pod of orcas was spotted in Wellington Harbor (see link below). In Bozeman we were used to seeing deer in town and the occasional black bear. But whales just a few blocks from our house?! I'm struggling to comprehend the reality of this situation and I hope we'll be able to see some this weekend when we're out strolling on the waterfront. :)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington-central/7861137/Orcas-seals-in-Wellington-Harbour

American muscle.....

This past weekend we heard that the Wellington venue, TSB Bank Arena, would be hosting the 33rd Annual NZ Mustang Convention. In my opinion NZ is the land of non-aesthetically pleasing cars. Sigh. No end of hatchbacks and station wagons, it's ugs-ville when it comes to Kiwi vehicles. It goes without saying that we jumped at the chance to see some classic, clean lines. :)

Immediately inside the door we were not disappointed because they started off with this beauty, a Shelby GT500. :)

  

While I was smitten with the Shelby I couldn't resist this sky blue gem (whose name neither Tim nor I can remember). :)

 

As we walked around we saw the evolution of the body styles throughout the years. Paint colors ranged from dark neutrals to bright warm colors and Easter-like pastels. A Mustang for every taste!

 

Some of the owners documented the journey from 'in need of TLC' to pristine!!

There were more cars outside some of which were for sale. Why, yes, I'd drive that home. :)